No, I heartily agree. We didn’t wake up one morning with a severe trade deficit out of the blue. It was the result of a lot of failed policies and practices.
I just don’t like to see people sugar coat our failed trade policies that are among the contributing factors to our reduced standard of living, as if it is a good thing or is at least neutral.
Are you willing to argue that your standard of living is lower than it was during the 1970’s?
The ability to purchase goods from around the world raises our standard of living.
Actually the trade deficit was fueled by our material success. We raised our standard of living to the point where it was impossible for us to produce ALL the stuff we wanted to AND could acquire. When a people have the ability and desire to buy almost all the stuff the world produces they are going to import a lot of stuff.